My Lords, Third Reading is normally a time to reflect on the passage of a Bill through your Lordships’ House and thank all those who have taken part. However, just two days after we finished Report, I believe we have reached consensus on one thing—that this is not a normal Third Reading.
The amendments I move today are a reflection of the quality of the debate we have had, and I thank all noble Lords whom the Secretary of State, the Minister of State and I have met over the past few days. I hope that the amendments in my name today will be helpful.
On Report, I committed to return to your Lordships’ House with an amendment to put in the Bill the Government’s commitment to deliver one new affordable home for every one sold. This is a key feature of our policy, which ensures that the sale of higher-value council housing funds the building of new affordable homes, as well as providing home ownership opportunities through extending the right to buy.
I hope noble Lords agree that Amendment 2 provides the assurance that this House has been seeking that, where the Government make an agreement with a local authority outside London about building new homes, at least one new affordable home is provided for each dwelling that is assumed to be sold. This was
always our intention, and is what I committed to on Report. This amendment chimes with the provision for the London authorities, which recognises the housing pressures in the capital and means that any agreement with the Secretary of State must ensure the construction of at least two new homes for every one that is assumed sold. Amendments 4, 5 and 7 are consequential minor changes to clarify the text on agreements.
Alongside this, it is the Government’s intention to give local authorities with particular housing needs the opportunity to reach bespoke agreements about the delivery of different types of new homes in their areas. If a local authority can demonstrate, for example, that there is a clear need for new affordable rented homes, then the Government should aim to make an agreement with them reflecting that, while taking into account the normal considerations of value for money and so on. On Report, I undertook to work with the noble Lord, Lord Kerslake, on how we might reflect that in the Bill. I am grateful to him for meeting me to discuss the issues. I believe that we all want to see local authorities in the driving seat, making the case for the type of new homes which are right for their communities, with an opportunity also to enter into agreements with the Government to deliver those homes, either directly or through partnership with other organisations. Of course, the Bill already enables local authorities to enter into agreements with the Government for the delivery of new homes but I acknowledged on Report that the House was keen to see some further detail in the Bill.
I am sorry to say that I am not able to return with a government amendment on this element at this stage. As I said, I believe that we share the view on the role that local authorities should play in delivering housing, but I am not able to accept the amendment which the noble Lord, Lord Kerslake, has retabled, which is too restrictive, as I made clear on Report. I will respond formally when we discuss his amendment.
Replacement of housing in rural areas is another area where noble Lords have made a strong case. Pressure on housing in some rural areas is exceptionally high and it is right that we should sometimes take a different approach to reflect that. Recognising these pressures, on Report I made a commitment to exclude—in the regulations which will govern the payment to be made by local authorities in respect of their higher-value vacant housing—housing in areas of outstanding natural beauty and in national parks.
On Report, I also undertook to look at the detailed points that had been raised in your Lordships’ House about housing in rural areas more generally. I have since looked at this issue further. I have also explored the issues that the noble Lords, Lord Best and Lord Cameron, raised. I am pleased that I can confirm that the Government will consider other rural areas when making exclusions in regulations to the housing to be considered for payment in respect of higher-value vacant housing. In particular, we will consider whether there is a case to exclude rural areas that have particular difficulty in replacing housing. We would be able to use the same regulation-making powers that we will use to exclude national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.
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Defining an exclusion in secondary legislation would take a little time. We would need to ensure that any definition is fair and reasonable yet retains existing local authority housing in communities where the accommodation would be hard to replace. We would also want to think through the relationship with the other rural aspects of the Bill, as raised by your Lordships’ House. As part of this, we will be looking closely at how the Secretary of State could designate particular rural areas to see if that would provide the basis for a clear definition. I will of course involve my noble friends Lord Best and Lord Cameron—I am sorry, the noble Lords, though I think that they have become my noble friends—in discussions.
Another commitment that I made on Report was on offering flexibility on the starter homes requirement for rural exception sites. I committed to return to the House at Third Reading with an amendment giving local discretion on the national starter homes requirement on rural exception sites. This was in response to the amendment by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, to seek flexibility for local councils for rural exception sites. However—I spoke to noble Lords about this—the amendment by the noble Lord, Lord Kerslake, to remove the power to set a national statutory requirement for starter homes was accepted by the House. This therefore renders the proposed amendment for rural exception sites invalid: if there is no nationally set requirement for starter homes, there is no need to disapply it for rural exception sites.
I would like to be clear to the House that the Government have listened carefully to the debate on starter homes and are carefully considering our response to the amendments. We will return to them during Commons consideration of Lords amendments. I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, and other noble Lords that, although I am not able to table our amendment to give the promised flexibility on rural exception sites today, our intention is to honour that commitment and that the amendment should be made at a later stage.
Amendment 15 is a technical amendment to ensure that no hybridity issues arise in respect of the regulations to define “higher value”. I beg to move.
Amendment 3 (to Amendment 2)